New executive and administrative orders to simplify and streamline the permitting system were the main topic of the status report delivered by PuertoRico Governor Jenniffer González Colón at the event convened by the Puerto RicoBuilders Association (PRBA).

The measures unveiled by the Governor were enthusiastically received by members of the construction industry. For Agustín Rojo Montilla, president of the PRBA, the Governor has the right vision. Although historically, the construction sector is not at its best, "we are seeing that the administration has the right vision of what steps need to be taken to correct this."

For both the Governor and the construction industry, it is vital to simplify permits and their requirements and eliminate vague regulations."We need agility and timely responses," González Colón emphasized.

One of the executive orders mentioned was OE-2025-003: ExpeditedProcedure for the Submission and Processing of Permit Applications forFederally Funded Projects, Emergency Projects, and Critical or StrategicProjects. Under this order, the concerned agencies must issue their opinion on a project within 20 days. If no response is received, the agencies will be deemed to have no recommendations, and the OGPe official must process the permit application and award it without delay.

In recent years, the construction sector has generated nearly 8% ofPuerto Rico's GDP and is estimated that it created nearly 50,000 direct jobs by 2023. "Although these numbers sound healthy, one of the biggest challenges we face today is the shortage of affordable housing," Rojo Montilla noted.

For the president of the ACPR, having such a restrictive PUT and a difficult permitting process has resulted in 55% of the island's housing being informal or illegal, making it more vulnerable to natural disasters and reducing tax revenue because they don't pay property taxes

"These are homes built in flood-prone areas prone to natural disasters, and their roofs are lost when the inevitable hurricanes hit. The way to prevent this is to encourage formal construction that complies with codes by facilitating the permitting process."